


a black soul is hungry,

by Alana



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Gen, Ghost-type Pokemon, Haunting, Implied Child Death, but not during the fic itself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26840500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alana/pseuds/Alana
Summary: "Have you heard about the kids who went missing up that mountain?" asks the woman behind the register, as Suzette hands over exact change for her pokéballs. "They say it's haunted up there. Isn't that scary?"
Relationships: Original Pokémon trainer & Her Pokémon
Comments: 5
Kudos: 4
Collections: Writing Rainbow Black





	a black soul is hungry,

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sleeperservice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeperservice/gifts).



> This is vaguely set in Sinnoh, but like, really vaguely, and I included pokémon from later generations because fanfic has no rules and later gens have really good ghosts. :D I hope you enjoy this!

"Have you heard about the kids who went missing up that mountain?" asks the woman behind the register, as Suzette hands over exact change for her pokéballs. "They say it's haunted up there. Isn't that scary?"

Suzette, who is twelve and looking for pokémon to fill out her team, perks up. "You mean with ghost pokémon? My brother has a Shedinja," she chatters, "but they're not really popular back home."

"No, no, I mean _properly_ haunted," the woman says, leaning against the counter, an indulgent smile on her face. "With things scarier and stronger than any ghost pokémon! I'd go around it, if I were you-- there's a path up, but who knows what you'll find up there?"

Suzette was planning on taking the route that passed east of the mountain, but the idea of there being something up there, something more interesting than the four-hundredth Bidoof she's seen since leaving home, has her bouncing on her heels with excitement. "I'll be careful," she promises, and shoves her new pokéballs into her bag before dashing back out into the street, fumbling for her map.

Honestly, it barely counted as a street, a narrow packed trail of dirt that runs between the two nearest routes-- this place barely counted as a town. Suzette thinks her mom might call it a _hamlet_ , just a little cluster of three tiny, rustic houses and a store, not even a pokémon center to rest up at. It was a nice surprise running into it, though! Suzette can't find it marked on her map, but she'd been running low on pokéballs-- after breaking about a dozen on the head of an Octillery she'd fished up (which sucked. She had really wanted that Octillery!)-- and now she was all stocked up again!

Humming, she sticks a little star sticker on her map, to mark the town in case she comes this way again, and sets off, up to the mountain she was warned away from.

\---

The trees are tall up here, and she hasn't seen a wild pokémon for ages.

About an hour into the trek, Suzette had called out her Machop, and asked her to stay with her during the climb; it was a good choice, she thinks, the little grey pokémon a reassuring presence at her side, holding her hand except when they had to scramble (or easily hop over) rocks or trees fallen across the poorly-kept path. 

But Machop's footsteps at her side and the wind in the trees is all she can hear anymore, and the path is getting narrower and rougher, and nerves are starting to creep into her stomach. She tries to swallow them down. "I'm not scared," she tells Machop, who squeezes her hand very gently and makes a reassuring noise of agreement. "But this path kind of sucks... maybe we should go back down?"

Machop shrugs, willing to follow Suzette either way, and she hesitates, looking up the path. Then she decides to turn back. "We can come back and explore when we have more friends," she declares, with relief settling over her nerves, and starts back down the mountain path.

\---

There was only one path coming up the mountain.

Suzette doesn't remember there being any splits, or joins, or places where she lost the trail, but coming back down the mountain, it's like a giant, dizzy Ariados had woven a web of paths, and forgotten to mend it as other bugs got caught in it--

Her nerves have been tightening her throat and rolling her stomach for what feels like hours. Machop hasn't exactly been looking happy, either. But what else are they supposed to do? Sit in one spot and do nothing? Hope Suzette finds and catches something that knows Fly?

But the trees around them have been getting less and less quiet as they get more and more lost.

Not with the sounds of... of life, precisely. Not like the forests she'd come through before climbing this mountain, with the cries of pokemon and rustle of moving bodies and songs, battles and attacks and other trainers chatting-- it's more resonant, lower, thrumming in her bones like when her brother would listen to music _really_ loudly in his room, except there's no muffled lyrics to go with it, nothing else to focus on besides the soft, stressed noises Machop is making.

"... Maybe we should go straight down through the woods," she whispers, even though she can't see anything close enough to hear her, and Machop nods, practically jumping down-slope, off the path and into the shadows while Suzette stumbles along behind her.

After a few paces, they both stop; the low, low rumble is rising up, and the leaves on the trees are shaking even as the air grows suffocatingly still, and Machop moves in front of Suzette, looking around nervously.

Then the ghosts come out of the trees.

Or at least, Suzette _thinks_ they're ghost type, their bodies black and wispy, their eyes red and unfocused, even if they're not ones she's ever seen before; some of them have their tails curled around a mask, and the masks are pale, round faces, eyes closed and tears streaming down their cheeks. The masks look like-- like doll faces, almost, more human than anything she's ever seen on a pokémon before. The others are masked in wood, and cry out, reaching towards her--

Machop looks back at Suzette, and sees her frozen, eyes wide and fists clenched, breath going funny as her entire body goes cold. Machop looks forward, at the ghosts approaching, and acts on her own.

Suzette cries out as she's swept off her feet and thrown over Machop's shoulder, her pokémon taking a huge leap over the ghosts and only stumbling a little as she lands in a high treebranch. Wailing rises in the woods behind them, and the world seems darker-- Suzette gasps, fighting for breath as they escape the cold, and thinks it's all _that_ making it darker, except Machop shifts her in her arms, bundling her into an awkward princess carry, and Suzette looks up to see the sky is changing colors, the blue fading swiftly to deep grey. There's no clouds, but it's as dark as if a thunderstorm had rolled in, the sun as cold and dim as a dying lightbulb, and the trees under them shriek as Machop takes another huge leap, Suzette screaming and throwing her arms around her pokémon's neck.

The descent down the mountain is swift, even as the trees themselves seem to try and grab Machop's ankles with tangled, thorny branches, limbs that look sturdy cracking and trying to fall out from under Machop's feet-- they land briefly on what Suzette thinks might have once been a roof, a collapsing house in the middle of the haunted woods, and she chokes on smoke that might not really be there. The tiles crunch as Machop launches herself forward. Suzette's throat clears, even though her tongue tastes like ashes, enough for her to scream as they plummet downwards, past the branch Machop had been aiming for, past the edge of a cliff--

Suzette's vision blurs as her stomach tries to lift itself out of her body, and when they hit the ground hard, Machop twisted under her to take the worst of the impact, Suzette still blacks out.

\---

Her head feels full of fog and dust when Suzette wakes up, and she whimpers when she blinks her eyes open-- but overhead is a blue sky, and there's no shrieking or wailing, and Machop is kneeling at her side, clutching her hand, crying silently with closed eyes.

"What," she croaks, and licks her lips, trying to form _happened_ in her ash-filled mouth. Her pokémon cries out as her eyes fly open-- then flings herself down on Suzette, to wail against her jacket, before she can get out the second word. " _Oh._ Oh, no, Machop," she whispers, and pets the crests on her head, pats her shoulder, scratches up and down her spine. "You... must've been scared too..." she says, and Machop nods against her, snuffling tearfully. "S'okay, it's okay, we-- we got away, right?" she murmurs, and Machop nods again.

Slowly, Suzette pushes herself up onto her elbows, determined to be strong and brave for her scared pokémon-- her friend-- who _saved_ her, oh, Machop is gonna get _so_ many treats later-- and looks around. They're on a small dirt trail, and around them are some low shrubs, dead trees, and four small, ruined buildings, half-overgrown but walls still clearly blackened with fire-- but there's also a Starly sitting on one of the walls, twittering blissfully, and the sounds of other pokémon in the forest around them, beyond the ruins, and none of that unnatural emptiness of the haunted mountain.

"... we should go back to town," she whispers, shakily, and has Machop help her to her feet. Towns are great. Suzette thinks she is going to stick to towns for a while.

The two of them lean against each other as they follow the trail away from the mountain, hands clutched together.


End file.
